Preview

Initiation commentary

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
447 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Initiation commentary
Initiation by Sylvia Plath – Commentary In the short story, Initiation, Sylvia Plath exemplifies the idea that freedom, independence, and acceptance can only be achieved when one learns to overcome the desire to fit in with the ideals of society. Through the character Millicent and the many uses of devices, Plath demonstrates that through the acceptance of our imperfections and flaws, one learns the beauty of individuality.
The point in the story when Millicent meets the small man from the bus is when she begins to realize that there is more to life than being confined to a group like the sorority. An interesting conversation sparked when Millicent asked the small man what he had for breakfast as he responded with ‘heather birds’ eyebrows on toast’. Instantly, Millicent is captivated and feels a sense of comradeship with this stranger. To belong doesn’t mean one has to follow the ideals of society because we can often find the most fascinating relations towards the oddest things just like how Millicent felt towards the man. Furthermore, the heather birds symbolize individuality because the fact that these creatures are mythological there’s that sense of uniqueness to these creatures. Unlike the sparrows that were mentioned in the story, the heather birds are freer, independent, and captivating in their own way. Conjointly, she begins to realize that the people weren’t smiling at her because they knew she was being initiated; rather, as Millicent quoted, “… they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them,” people were warming up to her because Millicent showed interest in them. Even though this markedly absurd task was only set up to embarrass Millicent, it actually proved to be more of an eye opener for Millicent because she realized that acceptance only took the courage to open up to each other. Moreover, the part in the excerpt when Millicent is sitting on the woodpile, it’s like she’s being offered up for sacrifice.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In “Entrance” by Dana Gioia, the author challenges the reader to reimagine their view of the world. Stepping outside of our comfort zone and trying to understand the view of those in opposition of us. Doing this we don’t necessarily change our ideals and views, but better our understanding and ability to accept what we once could never come to imagine. For me, particularly, Dana’s poem strikes a deep sense of familiarity, because I understand exactly what it means to try and accept another view or notion regarding something you hold dear to yourself. I did exactly what Dana conveys as I started maturing and growing into my current self, but for me I did it unknowingly.…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She feels tired and pressured by “social expectations” because “anyone who deviates from the norm had better find some way to compensate.” She emotionally engages…

    • 934 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The bird was like Minnie Foster. The bird is trapped in the birdcage just like how Minnie is trapped in her bad marriage. The sheriff’s wife said, “She--come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself.” This is quite ironic because she symbolizes the bird and the bird is later found dead, just like her soul. Minnie Foster is just like the trapped bird in the cage because she was trapped in a bad marriage.…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sylvia Plath, an extremely influential and beloved female poet who lived in the mid-20th century, was the author of numerous poems as well as the semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. Her work, especially that of her adult life, heavily reflects the darkness and depression that she dealt with. Plath, born in October of 1932, began writing at a very young age. Her first published work, titled simply “Poem”, was published before she had even turned ten. Plath wrote many short stories during her early years, and she even won several writing competitions. One of these was a fiction contest that earned her a position as guest editor at Mademoiselle…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    trifles bird symbolism

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When the women are looking around downstairs they come across a bird cage in the cupboard. Mrs Hale observes the door is broken off and someone must have been "rough with it," suggesting the motive for the crime. When Mrs. Hale looks inside Mrs. Wrights sewing box hoping to find scissors she finds a box and inside is the dead bird wrapped in silk. The birds neck looked as if it had been strangled. The women recall that when Minne Foster was younger she was lively, wore pretty clothes and sung in the choir, they said "I heard she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir." The bird represented Minnie before she was married to Mr. Wright. Mrs. Hale says, "She-come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery. How- she- did- change." Minne and the bird were both caged, the bird was in stuck in an actual cage and Minne was stuck in the house all the time. Mr. Wright changed Mrs. Wright, he took all those good things away, he was controlling he didn’t allow her to see her friends or leave the house, he even stopped her from singing. The bird was her motive…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the very beginning of the novel you see two birds, a mockingbird and a parrot. In the beginning we don’t know what the mockingbird is but we determine that the parrot is Edna Pontellier. The parrot is known for its physical appearance and is mostly overlooked, just like Edna, forgotten and only known for her physical appearance. We later learn that Mademoiselle Reisz represents the mockingbird. Mademoiselle Reisz is known for her musical talent. The mockingbird sings and is found some what annoying. And that’s all society cares about, Madame’s musical talent. But this wasn’t just the way society treated Madame and Edna, but this was how every woman was treated in the nineteenth century. Women were overlooked and people didn’t care about their opinion.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When speaking about Sylvia Plath a word too often use is Tragedy, the tragedy that was her life and the pain that ended it. Plath is known for her cynical twisted writing, but never too far from the truthful pain no one dared to speak about. Plath was far more than just a sad woman who made it an art form. Plath was more than other women on the Ted Hughes list of accomplishments, she was a literary genius and was a face of a movement that 50 years later is still worthy of praise. Sylvia Plath should be known for not only her literary accomplishments but the voice she created for women too not only speak about the unspeakable but to be open about the serious nature of mental illness. Sylvia Plath’s suicide is said to have overshadowed…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    People are always trying to conform to society. Whether it is wearing clothing that fits society’s standards or wanting to achieve the perfect appearance that society deems as perfect; people have the pressure to “fit” in. People want to fit into society to feel accepted and not want to be ostracized as the weird one or different. Furthermore, there is this struggle to be deemed as “acceptable” by society instead of focusing on one’s true self. In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, the story focuses on Edna Pontellier a wife and mother who is unsatisfied with her life and starts to experience awakenings not only sexual but most importantly an awakening of herself identity. Edna struggles with finding happiness in balancing her independency…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Birds: Birds are symbolic of the Victorian era women present in the story, just as the cages they are placed in mirror the societal restraints placed upon these women by the creole society. As the birds scream “Go away! Go away! For God’s sake" it is understood that this restriction of sorts is not always accepted, rather a select few instead reject them, enter our main character Edna.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Birds in Macbeth

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Birds that are not predators symbolize innocence, more specifically childhood. One could say that fowl are fair. Lady Macduff is aghast when she hears the news about her husband leaving Scotland. She tells her son that his father is dead, and asks what he will do. He replies he will live “as birds do, mother”(IV.ii.32). Lady Macduff then comments that he will not fear any kinds of traps, like an innocent bird unaware of its predators and trappers. Banquo and his son Fleance are on their way to Macbeth’s castle for a feast when a group of three murderers ambush the two. While Banquo tries to fend them off he exclaims, “Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly”(III, iii, 17). What he says obviously compares Fleance to a bird, telling him to fly and be free from violence, thus innocent. When Macduff hears about the news of Macbeth killing his “pretty chickens and their dam, At one fell swoop”(IV, iii, 224-225), he calls Macbeth a “hell-kite”(IV, iii, 223). These lines are very dense when it comes to the symbolism of birds in Macbeth. One line establishes birds as horrible things capable of…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sylvia Plath

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Sylvia Plath poetry is unique because of her use of language and the perspective and themes she explores, creating powerful images and original metaphorical ideas to evoke a strong climax of feelings which express the struggles she experienced in her own personal life. Her poems ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Daddy’ are confessional poems that use contemporary form and respectively a childlike and mocking tone to convey the persona’s mixed sense of emotions . Plath’s poetry utilises unique language to express her anger, hope, desire and disappointment. There is a constant suicidal motif in her poems revealing her personal issues and problems which are linked to male domination in the patriarchal society she resided in. It is unusual that Plath’s poetry is written in a strong female perspective contrary to the passive domesticity which women were meant to abide by in her 1950’s and 1960’s context.…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    On page 9, Millicent thinks of the heather birds, and she imagines them, “strong and proud in their freedom and their sometime loneliness”. This is exactly how Millicent knows she will be if she decides to be independent, and it is shown in a positive way, foreshadowing that not joining the sorority is the best choice for her. She used to think that popularity and being social lead to happiness, but if she’s like a heather bird, who are “strong and proud”, she realizes that she can still be happy, along with a necessary occasional loneliness. Additionally, right after thinking of the sparrows, “for some reason, Millicent thought of the heather birds,” (9). It isn’t ironic that Millicent thought of sparrows, the birds that she thought she was going to be like, and then heather birds, a bird representing what she aspires to live like. Nor is it ironic that Millicent makes her decision about not joining the sorority right after she thinks about the heather birds, as she realizes that these birds, free and happy, are what she wants to be, not…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Bell Jar

    • 2382 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Bond, Diane. “The Separative Self in Sylvia Plath 's The Bell Jar.” Women’s Studies Vol. 18 (1990): 49-64. JSTOR. Harford Community Coll. Lib. 2 Apr. 2008 .…

    • 2382 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    3) Gerisch, B. (1998). `This is not death, it is something safer': A psychodynamic approach to Sylvia Plath. Death Studies, 22(8), 735.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this Close Reading I will be analyzing a passage from “Preciousness,” by Clarice Lispector, in an attempt to argue that the protagonists idle classroom drawings are a metaphor for an internal struggle to reconcile “self” with normative contextual constraints that compel conformity. “Preciousness” centers on the internal life of an unnamed 15-year old girl, as she attempts to navigate questions of agency, meaning, identity and sexuality within larger cultural and social contexts. Bounded and constrained by conventions and customs inherent to dominant theoretical and ideological paradigms, which through their normative constructions exert a great deal of influence. Painfully self-aware, the protagonist finds her personal conceptions of, and…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays